The Bootstrap Paradox Confidential Industry Review

What happens to faith when the miracle has a mechanism?

A completed 99,000-word literary science-fiction novel about faith, evidence, sacrifice, and the cost of discovering that history may have been engineered.

Novel 99,000 words. Fully edited. Manuscript ready to read.
Audio-Musical Drama Twenty-two original tracks. Two hours of composition. Recorded.
Interactive Experience The Crossover Institute — a live companion world that extends the novel's universe.
Television Series Complete pilot. Five-season series bible mapping the full arc.
The novel stands alone. The multimedia package expands the rights opportunity.
The Bootstrap Paradox cover
For Agents
Agent Start Here
Four ways in. Everything opens in a window — nothing leaves the page.
Read the Query One-page overview (PDF) Agent packet (PDF)
Pilot script and five-season series bible available to dramatic-rights professionals on request.
Manuscript at a Glance
Title
The Bootstrap Paradox
Author
David Moss
Genre
Literary science fiction with a theological dimension
Word count
99,000 words
Status
Manuscript complete, prepared for representation
Available
Query letter, first fifty pages, full synopsis, full manuscript, one-pager, agent packet — on request
Comps
The Sparrow · Station Eleven · Devs
The Story
What happens to faith when the miracle has a mechanism?

The Bootstrap Paradox follows Dr. Mara Mitchell, an atheist trauma surgeon, after a deep-space mission captures ancient light from Jerusalem, 33 CE, revealing the crucifixion and resurrection not as myth, but as an intervention by humans using advanced technology. As governments, religions, and families fracture around the discovery, Mara is forced toward an impossible truth: observation was never the mission. Obligation was.

Read deeper

The novel begins with an observation mission that becomes a crisis of civilization. A deep-space crew catches ancient light from Jerusalem, 33 CE, and watches the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus revealed not as myth but as an intervention carried out by unidentified humans using advanced technology.

The discovery does not answer the central question. It fractures it. Governments, faith communities, families, and the crew itself split along lines no one expected. An atheist surgeon, a Jesuit priest who was a physicist first, and a sentient ship intelligence are forced to interpret what they have seen, while institutions on Earth choose between truth and suppression.

What begins as observation becomes obligation. The deeper the crew pulls on the thread, the clearer it becomes that history was not only witnessed but engineered, and that one of them will eventually have to cross into the past and become part of the pattern they uncovered. The engine of the book is not a mystery to solve, but a cost that keeps escalating.

Why This Story Now

Public conversation has returned to questions the twentieth century thought it had settled: what evidence does to belief, what consciousness is made of, the line between intervention and miracle, and what we owe each other when the older institutions cannot answer.

Artificial intelligence has put the architecture of mind on a workbench. Cosmology has put the architecture of time on a chalkboard. Streaming has built an audience that will sit with hard ideas if the story sits with them honestly. The science-fiction-meets-theology category has been quiet for a decade. The Sparrow remains in print thirty years later. The audience is there. The books are not.

The central question is not whether explanation destroys wonder. It is whether explanation asks more of us than mystery ever did.

Multimedia Expansion Package

The novel stands alone. These additional formats were built while the book was being written. They are presented here as completed expansion assets, proof of scale, and rights upside — not as a precondition for representation.

Television

Pilot and Five-Season Series Bible

Complete pilot script. Complete five-season series bible mapping the full arc. Pitch deck prepared.

Pilot, bible, and pitch deck available on request to dramatic-rights professionals.

Interactive Experience

The Crossover Institute

A live interactive companion world that extends the novel's universe. Designed as a reader-facing companion piece, not a substitute for the book.

Tour available on request.

Audio-Musical Adaptation

Companion song cycle

Complete twenty-two-track adaptation. Approximately two hours of original composition, written, composed, and produced by the author.

Lyric book and selected tracks available on request.

Rights & Representation

All underlying rights are controlled by the author. Documentation is available upon request.

Seeking literary representation for The Bootstrap Paradox, with an agent or agency capable of helping evaluate and coordinate the property's broader dramatic, audio, and interactive rights. The novel is the primary work. The additional formats are complete and available as expansion assets.

Ideal representation would begin with the novel and preserve a coordinated strategy for dramatic, audio, interactive, and ancillary rights. The author is open to the right structure.

About the Author

David Moss has spent four decades building work for the ear, the eye, and the screen. His background spans broadcasting, music production, songwriting, narrative branding, and digital platform development. He is named inventor on multiple patents and has published widely on strategy and brand.

He brings to The Bootstrap Paradox the disciplines of three adjacent practices: the long arc of a series writer, the structural ear of a producer, and the marketing mind of a brand operator. The novel is his first work of fiction.

David Moss  ·  Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Downloads

Open materials. Full manuscript, full synopsis with ending, pilot, bible, and lyric book available on request to agents and rights professionals.

Query letter
Read on page or download as PDF
View
First fifty pages
Download
One-page overview
Download
Agent packet (consolidated)
Download
Query Letter
Query: The Bootstrap Paradox — 99,000-word literary science fiction
Dear [Agent],

I am seeking literary representation for my completed novel, The Bootstrap Paradox, a 99,000-word literary science fiction with a theological dimension. The closest comparisons are Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, and Alex Garland's Devs.

On a deep-space observation mission in the twenty-second century, a crew catches ancient light from Jerusalem, 33 CE, and watches the crucifixion and resurrection unfold not as myth, but as an intervention carried out by unidentified humans using advanced technology. The footage fractures governments, faith communities, families, and the crew itself. Dr. Mara Mitchell, an atheist trauma surgeon, is told that observation was never the mission. Obligation was. The book is about what truth demands, what love can survive, and what divinity might be when the mechanism becomes visible.

The manuscript is complete and ready to read. I would be glad to send the first fifty pages, the full synopsis, or the complete manuscript on request. The first fifty pages are also available immediately as an open download.

Three additional assets in the same universe are complete and available as expansion materials: a television pilot with a five-season series bible, an interactive companion experience called The Crossover Institute, and a twenty-two-track audio-musical adaptation. The novel is the primary work. I am open to the right structure for the rest.

I have spent four decades in broadcasting, music, and digital platforms, and I am named inventor on multiple patents. This is my first novel — a story I have carried for twenty years and waited to write until I had lived enough to write it honestly.

Thank you for considering The Bootstrap Paradox.

Sincerely,
David Moss davidmoss59@gmail.com  ·  Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Download Query as PDF
Frequently Asked
Publication status
The manuscript is complete and prepared for representation. No agency agreement has been granted. No dramatic, audio, interactive, or ancillary rights have been optioned or sold. No prior commercial launch has occurred.
Rights and ownership
All underlying rights are controlled by the author. There are no prior options, no prior agency agreements, no producer attachments, and no rights encumbrances. Chain of title documentation is available upon request.
Sample and materials
The first fifty pages are available immediately as a download, with no nondisclosure required. The full manuscript, full synopsis, pilot script, series bible, and lyric book are available on request to agents and rights professionals.
Comps and audience
The Sparrow, Station Eleven, and Devs. Audience: serious science-fiction readers who also read literary fiction; theology-curious readers; the Sparrow / Station Eleven crossover.
Religious material
The novel is neither a Christian nor an anti-Christian novel. It takes the Gospel events seriously as material and asks what would change, and what would not change, if the mechanism of those events became visible. The closest tonal precedent is Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow.
Multimedia package
The world of the novel produced its own expansion assets while the book was being written. They are presented as completed proof of scale and rights upside, not as a precondition for representation. The novel stands alone.
Contact

Representation inquiries, manuscript requests, and rights conversations may be directed to David Moss.

David Moss davidmoss59@gmail.com Fort Lauderdale, Florida